Category: Professional Development

On 14th April 2015, I participated in Learn Lab’s Business Models in Education workshop at Binggo Cafe in Beijing. About Learn Lab Learn Lab is an accelerator, an entity that brings people with ideas (entrepreneurs) together with people looking to invest in ideas (angel investors). Through education-focused training and mentoring, Learn Lab’s aim is to…

What Dreams May Come? Describing myself as a visual learner, I was very pleased to see the use of images take centre stage of this webinar. Indeed, photographs, pictures and drawings are all great ways to stimulate ideas and encourage reflection in the classroom. The webinar presenter, Terry Prosser, gave us lots of ideas for…

Thinking Skills This webinar was particularly apt, having just recorded a podcast about Bloom’s Taxonomy in Chinese for my Educollaborate project. These experiences combined have Bloom’s six categories etched into my brain in both English and Chinese! But what is Bloom’s Taxonomy? Well, they are six levels of cognition that may be used by educators…

Uncovering Future Interests Back in September 2014, just before I began my Masters in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching at the University of Nottingham, I met up with a friend who is an I.T. whizz. She was due to help me migrate my Tumblr blog to WordPress, help with plug-ins and in general, help me…

Provocations of Light Light pierces through the dense environs, revealing a blurry entity, writhing, entrapped. Like a certain babe in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, the conscious thing lies on the ground, motionless, seemingly considering options. Arms unseen, the outline hints at the form of a human being, and yet the overly large cranium…

Reflections on Blogging I’m not a writer, per se, but have written a diary ever since I was quite young. I do like to ruminate about things, to sit back, reflect and analyse my thoughts, so writing a diary suits me well. Fast forward to my arrival in China, and I began an online travel…

This week we delved into the language teacher identity through Varghese et. al’s work on Theorizing Language Teacher Identity. My Self- Identity: Social Identity Theory In terms of social identity as a NEST in China, I have been assigned a higher status (US being the highest) where there is constant debate about which accent…

Here I use Snag It to give advice to a friend about studying Spanish online. Take a look! Image and Screen Capture Since my tutor recommended I try alternative ways to express my ideas on my blog, I have been experimenting with free online audio and video capture tools. This one, Snag It, I have…

Online Animated Presentation Software Continuing the theme of experimentation, I re-worked my ‘This is my city: London’ presentation using Powtoon, an online animation and slides tool, to compare results with previous attempts. It is important to point out here that I used their SlidesPro plan, and not the Studio plan, which includes animation. With Powtoon,…